Georgia/Turkmenistan: Agreement Reached On Gas Pipeline

Tbilisi, 24 February 1997 (RFE/RL) - Georgia's Ministry for Energy and Fuel says Turkey and Georgia have reached an agreement on using Georgian gas pipelines to ship Russian gas to Turkey.

And Interfax news agency reports the deal includes Georgia using natural gas from Turkmenistan to generate electricity, which will also be transmitted to Turkey. The news agency says the agreement was reached over the weekend at a session of the Georgia-Turkey economic commission held in Tbilisi.

Georgia's Energy and Fuel Minister David Zubitashvili said the deal will enable Georgia more efficiently to use its electricity-generating capacity -- 50 percent of which, he said, is idle because of a lack of raw materials. The deal will also help Georgia repay its electricity debt to Turkey.